Can You Love a Nanobot? Vol. 1, Chapter 20 — Team Spirit

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
A robot must obey the orders given by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first law
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second laws
— Issac Asimov & European Union rules regarding the status of robots. In 2017 members of the EU voted on whether or not to bestow personhood on robots.

Photo courtesy JWST & NASA.

CSIC Meeting, Raven Rock
General Kearny, good to see you again!” Admiral Troost nearly shouted, standing up and vigorously shaking his hand. “Allow me to introduce you to the others.”

“That won’t be necessary Jan, I know everyone here and they know me.”

There were name plates before some participants, they weren’t all correct. He knew the gruff man in the wrinkled lab coat was not Lt. Janine Marlowe. He spotted her two seats down.

“Give us the low down on this new threat, Gus.” Troost asked.

“I’ll do my best to explain it, Jan. It’s complicated. Before I start the briefing, is this active as a SKIF? Is everything operating?”

“Yes sir, and every person here is cleared.” Candelaria, his aide, assured.

The Lowdown
Marlowe took a sip of water, a deep breath, and began. “It started in a lab in Massachusetts…A talented team of grad students, working under Physicist Hugo Gernsback, developed 3 portable microchip fabricators. Everything you might find in an Intel plant, stuffed inside a small cube. Three little metal boxes ostensibly sent up to test new chip manufacturing techniques. Students used nanotechnology. AI too. The cubes were launched into space from Florida aboard a SpaceX and mounted in the space station. After a few months, astronauts noticed two of the experiments, called Cubes, starting to heat up. They put the Cubes outside ISS on a rack until they could be safely transported back to Earth.”

As Marlowe spoke Foley changed slides projected on the wall behind her. A map of Boston. School web site. Stock image of young people in a room full of test tubes and Bunsen burners. An old microchip. A 3D printer. A molecule. ISS. Before and after photos of car bomb factory in Waziristan. A US MQ-9 drone. Scenes of the aftermath of the bomb blast on a German bridge.

What Next?
“What’s next, Gus? What’s the plan?”

“The key figure, right now, is this uh, janitor who cleaned the building where the Cube Team worked. He got involved with their science experiment, might have made unauthorized updates.”

“A janitor? This case hinges on a custodian tampering with a science project now in space? I certainly hope we’ve got him locked up, sitting in a chair, answering questions.”

“He’ll be in FBI custody soon. NASA reached him over the phone. Maybe he’ll give us some answers, analysis, whatever. With few other leads, his assistance could be critical.”

“Until caught he’s using a satellite to target extremists? What makes you think he’ll cooperate?”

“Jan, the individual in question is not believed to be in control of space weapons. His profile is not that of an extremist or technical genius. Nobody is steering these cubes, as far as anyone can tell.”

“Somebody must be. What do you mean weapons? There’s another one?”

“Two Cubes have gone missing. They’re designed to collaborate, but they can function independently. Whatever they morphed into, we call them Satbots now. They use machine learning, artificial intelligence and iPhone apps, without human assistance. How they pick targets is a mystery.”

Marlowe spoke next, “An old Indian satellite, GSAT-6A now appears to have been modified. Likely the source of a blast in Waziristan that led to this emergency meeting. We tied an image to the Indian satellites, but ISRO is not controlling it.”

“What a huge mess, General,” a man in front complained, “the President is fielding calls from Russia, China and India about this and he has no answers. Give me your plan to end this.”

“I wish I had one, John. Everyone, this is John Barry, the President’s National Security advisor. Right now, we’ve assembled a team of experts to assist the FBI. The European Space Agency is working closely with NASA and India. Janitor is a genuine enigma. Claims to be the Professor’s nephew. Also goes by Gernsback, Jonah Gernsback. Yet barely a trace of public records to prove any connection.”

“I hope we have plans to destroy these space weapons?”

“Not that easy. We are working on a method of disabling them, without causing such a huge debris field. The last time the Chinese blew up a satellite it created cloud of space junk, eventually damaging other satellites. Russians nearly took out ISS shooting down one of their own. The results of space weapon tests don’t burn up in the atmosphere for years.”

“Incredible. How many nations have hits targets in space?”

“That’s difficult to determine. We know of 5 instances. There are certainly more. The thing is, we launch rockets and hit targets in space all the time. The only difference is we slow down and perform docking procedures. No collision. No mess left behind in orbit.”

“Right now, we’re leaving it up to the FBI and a janitor to solve the problem?”

“No, sir. CSIC is a diverse and growing team of experts working together. At DoD Space Force made it a top priority. We are gathering original Cube Team members for a conference. Geospatial is tracking the satellites. This Jonah Gernsback is helpful, he’s not a janitor. His uncle was the professor that developed the project in the first place. He’s helping us get a handle on this situation.”

“If the Professor’s nephew hacked these — ”

“Uh-huh” The Naval officer not buying this story.

“A few weeks later the Cubes went missing. No sign of them and part of ISS is seriously damaged; thankfully it’s an older uninhabited module. Not long after the Cubes went missing the Indian military started getting transmissions from a broken recon satellite. A bird they lost contact with shortly after launch. We traced those transmissions to the Cubes through their iPhones. A month or so later, the iPhone in Cube2 FaceTimes the German police and confesses to prematurely detonating some bombs. They did this on a bridge, away from homes, while the extremists were on their way to their intended target, a festival.”

“Are we certain this isn’t that old Russian space weapon, designed, in response to Reagan’s threat to build space weapons? Who’s on this case, Gus?” Troost pressed, “I certainly hope it’s our best people.”

“FBI’s coordinating with my team and the Agency, NASA, European Space Agency, NSA, and the university. Bureau’s getting assistance from a third-party, tied to the school project.” Kearny explained, thinking to himself it was a janitor and his iPad. Essentially nothing.

“What do the students have to say about their experiments gone wild? Are they all over this?”

“They graduated. Mostly returned to their home countries. Bureau tracked most of them down. The team members we’ve contacted can’t say why their cubes would do anything besides slowly fab microchips. They worked in silos. Specialists. Brilliant researchers, at least according to their professors and a dean. Professor Gernsback was their nexus, selected each one, dovetailing their skills into the final project.”

“As far as these Cubes go, they’re designed to manufacture parts quietly then go back to the lab for study, 12 months in space, that’s all.”

“Where’s this Professor now? Why isn’t he here today?”

“Took medical leave, before the Cubes were launched. Something serious. Alzheimer’s He can’ help us. Special Agent Dumas visited him. School won’t talk to us about the professor’s job performance or medical records, not without a subpoena. Foley’s trying to get a judge’s signature.”

“This is a national security matter! Can’t someone at that school grasp this?”

“Herein lies the quandary, Director. We can’t reveal too much about this yet, not to the school, certainly not to the press. Rumors about active space weapons are only that, rumors, until verified.”

“Until we can get more details, the prudent choice is to keep a lid on it. Official contacts in the Indian military agree with me, they also see a need to keep this under wraps as long as possible. Makes them look vulnerable, and in violation of existing space weapons treaties. Of course, all that’s contingent on us keeping them in the loop.”

“What if they’re behind it all? Indian satellite. Indian citizens on Cube Team — now back on Indian soil?”

“The transmissions all use protocols associated with iPhones, Director. Two specific IMSI’s, unique subscriber numbers, along with Apple IDs, for two iPhones, the ones installed in Cube1 and Cube2.”

“Sort of puts this school science project front and center, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, it does Admiral Troost. It only adds urgency to our effort to shut them down before another international incident occurs.”

Everyone in the room, nodding and mumbling in agreement.

Dumas Arrives
“My apologies, Agent Dumas. I took the initiative of starting once we had team members seated or on Zoom. This is an urgent matter.” The General claiming responsibility for starting without her. He wore neatly pressed camo fatigues instead of his dress uniform. Must be a Saturday thing, Dumas thought. “Let’s get you caught up. The Indian Army made an official inquiry to NASA. Involves this older recon satellite. GSAT-6A. Failed a few years back, replaced with a better bird.”

“If it’s defective why wasn’t it taken out of orbit? Brought down safely?” Foley asked.

“Hardly anybody does that, the fuel they use to maneuver is usually all gone. I don’t know in this case. GSAT stopped communicating shortly after launch. Radio problem. Hari, you were the Cube team’s resident astrophysicist, why don’t you take it from here?” Kearny asked, introducing Dr. Sarkar.

After the normal delay, Dr. Sarkar spoke calmly. He was in his office near Sriharikota Range, a set of rocket launchpads operated by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). “It is not always easy or possible to safely bring down a satellite in an unpopulated area, particularly if it has stopped responding like GSAT-6A. That is one reason why so many are still up there. They originate in many nations but mostly the US and Europe. Sometimes the fuel they used, such as hydrazine, is expended. Controllers cannot maneuver it to lower altitudes. If it was nuclear-powered, there may be concerns about it leaving a toxic skid mark as it burns up on re-entry. Bigger sats might not burn up completely. No nation wants a smoldering hunk of former satellite, leaking hydrazine or radioactive matter, landing in their crowded cities. GSAT-6A failed therefore we had no choice but to leave it in orbit. This may be why Cube1 chose it as a destination after leaving ISS.”

“That’s weird but I get it. We learned Skylab skidded into Australia’s Outback.” Dumas answered, eager to know more. “Why are we talking about Cube1 in relation to GSAT anyway?”

Lost in Space
Foley spoke next, knowing her friend was stressed-out; Ingrid definitely running on little sleep. “A researcher at a military lab in Pune, India, started intercepting encrypted transmissions coming from GSAT-6A. Contains a tiny nuclear reactor. Fully shielded. Unfortunately, it went silent shortly after launch in April 2018. Ground controllers couldn’t decrypt these latest signals, which is pretty amazing because they built it and they have some of the best cryptologists in the world. At first, they thought the signals might be getting bounced off their old bird. One thing they do know, the source of the transmissions is a fairly recent model, an iPhone 13 Pro. Apple helped them ID the device. The MEID matches an iPhone purchased by the school. Registered to a Hugo Gernsback’s Physics Department email account. That’s Cube project hardware.”

Admiral Troost interrupted, “How did the school’s phone end up lost in space? An astronaut accidentally dropped it? Musk launch it up there for fun, like his Tesla? It’s still working. How’s it stay charged?”

The team members all knew all why there were iPhones mounted in each Cube. Jerry spoke first, “Hugo decided to mount iPhones in the Cubes as a cheap processor. Like Agent Foley said, Cube1 could be bouncing signals off that Indian sat. I can’t understand why it would try to communicate with some base station in India. It’s like someone has taken control of the Cube.”

“I doubt it, but hold that thought, Agent Dumas.” Hari advised, “Our Ground controllers in Pune insist physical modifications were made to GSAT-6A. There is no other way. Astronomers are just now reporting the temporary presence of previously unknown space debris near our satellite. Unmapped debris popping up is quite unusual 500 kilometers above earth. One thing connects ISS and GSAT-6A like two dots in a puzzle, that iPhone registration” As Hari spoke the Zoom screen split and a detailed diagram of the event filled half the screen. “MoD, our Ministry of Defense, just contracted a private satellite to photograph GSAT-6A. Cube1 is right there, in a hole cut into the satellite. See?”

Cube1 Spotted
Felicia tapped on her laptop and put Hari’s small Zoom image up on the giant screen. GSAT-6A was a boxy satellite, with dual solar arrays and something that looked like a trampoline tethered beside it. Cube1 clearly visible, through a hole in the side.

“What’s with the thing that looks like a kiddie pool?” General Kearny wondered out loud.

“It’s a 6-meter S-band antenna, General. Aligned towards our base station in India.” Hari advised. “Cube1 is using it. The transmissions are heavily encrypted, like 2 layers of 256k, something that hasn’t ever been done. 512k”

“How’d Cube1 get there? Something stole it?” Kearny again speculating.

“Please zoom in on this image, we can see modifications have been made to Cube1, General. Those 4 nozzles, here, here, and here, were not there when they were sent up to the Space Station,” Anna Murnau pointed out the drives, eager to participate.

“Those look like something off a can of bug spray.” Kearny observed.

“Though they resemble spray nozzles they function as plasma propulsion engines.” Anna admitted, “JPL initially thought they were ion drives. Plasma thrusters are common on satellites. They harvest plasma from microwaves or radio frequencies picked up by their iPhone antennas. How they navigate is the important question.”

“Precisely my thoughts, Anna. Unfortunately, we made RF harvesting easier by giving each cube RF hybrid cells gleaned from Samsung remote controls. Cubesat mods left in. The cubes made a precise calculation before blasting off for the GSAT rendezvous. Slightest error and they would have flown past. Also had to decelerate to avoid colliding and becoming more space junk. It’s beyond the imagination of our best people. Space agencies use supercomputers to make such calculations. Wait, yes, there it is. See those 2 corners? The other cube is right behind Cube1. They flew away in tandem!”

“I was wondering where Cube2 was. Good catch, Hari. This situation needs to be addressed immediately. We may be up against very stealthy rogue scientists with access to supercomputers. They could be state actors using superintelligent robots.” Vritti said with an urgency she never ever expressed before. “When artificial intelligence advances this rapidly there may be no catching up. The human race itself may be in danger.”

“One step at a time, Vritti.” Dumas advised, “We all understand the urgency to solve this but we’re just getting started with our investigation. We need to stay focused, not frightened.”

“I can’t imagine an astronaut took time out of his or her day to attach plasma thrusters to both cubes, somehow steer them over to GSAT-6A, restore it and nobody saw a thing.” Kearny said sarcastically, unable to accept a scenario Candelaria outlined for him earlier.

“No, General,” Hari countered. “Miers took photographs right before she and Watanabe moved the Cubes outside. I’ll post them now. See? No modifications visible. NASA says nobody went on a spacewalk after the astronauts strapped them to the rack near Bigelow.” Hari cycled through still images taken from external ISS cams.

Anna explained further. “The Cubes have on-board 3D printers but their resources remain limited. Only what they needed to build microcircuits. They would need other materials to build a functional plasma drive. God only knows where they obtained parts. Had to be taken from ISS.”

“You think the cubes miraculously grew a pair, of tiny rocket engines?” Kearny asked, growing incredulous, “Located fuel, fired ’em up and zipped on over to a broken satellite 1,000s of kilometers away? All by themselves? Rosa, er, Specialist Candelaria has an announcement.”

“The shuttle bus from Andrews arrived. We’ll be joined by 2 more members of the original Cube Project team. Take a 10-minute bio-break, return promptly.” Except for Dumas and Foley, the room cleared in seconds.

Dumas was surprised for the second time today. President Harrison used diplomatic channels and an Air Force Gulfstream to bring Dr. Kazunori and Rena Saki direct from their homes in Shinjuku. The two scientists arrived while everyone else returned to line up for more tea or coffee. Neither appeared very happy to be there, especially after the long flight. Foley offered each tea which they warmly accepted.

Singularity
With the ¾ of the original team back together, Dumas encouraged them to brainstorm potential solutions. She asked Vritti, now teaching the Professor’s nanotechnology class, to hypothesize about what went wrong with the cubes.

“Professor Gernsback actually sought results not so different from what we’re now seeing. Smart robots. Superintelligence. The Singularity, maybe. Instead of being wrong, these cubes might be meeting their creators expectations.”

“Not exactly the direction I was looking to take this conversation,” Dumas interrupting Vritti, “Jerry, what are your thoughts?”

“Really, Agent Dumas? No idea but I apologize for this snafu. Really, I mean, we never intended for the cubes to harm anything.” Jerry began, “I’ll help in any way but my brain’s a little addled from fighting this virus. We had no plans for the cubes to occupy any satellites. They were designed to expand their processing capabilities, to map more debris fields. No propulsion units were installed but original cubesat specs included ion drives. It seems they decided to improve the original design. Should we try another software update?”

“Software update? Hold that thought Jerry. I helped write those specs.” Vritti admitted, “Professor Gernsback wanted them to be full-fledged cube satellites but there wasn’t enough money in the budget. Jerry may be on to something. Maybe the cubes were inadvertently instructed to finish the Professor’s plans. The idea of running another software update is worth exploring but given the intelligence level these cubes are exhibiting; I doubt they’ll let us update them. Dr. Sakai, what are your thoughts?”

Brookhaven Labs
Rena Sakai reacted as if coming out of deep meditation or maybe it was jet lag. It was doubtful she heard the question but saw all attention on her. “We need to get at least one cube back; it needs to be closely examined at Brookhaven Labs so we can know more about how AI modified my printing and nano-assembly routines. I understand Cube3 remains on ISS.”

“It is. It doesn’t overheat. But why involve another Federal facility, what’s Brookhaven got to do with this?” Kearny asked.

“If I might answer your question, General Kearny,” Dr. Lee said, speaking for the first time, “Brookhaven Labs houses the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, they are the US counterpart to my department at Korea’s Advanced Institute of Science & Technology. They have the best equipped labs in this country. We need to understand what went wrong.”

“I suggest we examine Cube3 for clues.” Dr. Lee stating a solution nobody else was considering.

“I’m in. I’ll get have them get Cube3 down here on the next SpaceX resupply mission.” Kearny offered. “That’s where we stand now, Agent Dumas. NASA is looking into this situation. If 2 rogue cubes can do all we’ve discussed there’s no telling what they might do with the resources aboard GSAT-6A: all kinds of digital sensors, unused fuel, plus a large solar array.” Kearny pointed to photos Hari was quick to display.

“Hari, what do we know about the analyst in Pune that discovered this? The student that picked these transmissions? He sounds like someone we could use to help secure Cube transmissions.”

“She. Glad to assist. MoD won’t say, except she works for the Indian Army.” Hari answered. “Regarding the cube’s choice of platform, I think it may have been proximity. GSAT-6A was the nearest and newest unused satellite. An Officer Agarwal tried to tell me the satellite was designed to transmit or receive only from their ground stations. What if the other station is near the government ground station?”

“Entirely possible. Have you ever seen the rooftops of India? You’ll know how impossible sorting out dish antenna owners might be. Those antennas are everywhere, every village has at least one, along with the homes of everyone in the middle class and up.

Who’s In Charge?
“Why weren’t scientists closely monitoring these cube experiments? I mean, it’s an experiment in outer space, who’s the researcher in charge?” General Kearny demanded.

Agent Foley offered these answers. “Professor Gernsback was definitely the lead. The scientist-in-charge, General. He got sick. The Cube Team graduated. NASA did assign a researcher at JPL. She took parental leave earlier than expected. An unfortunate sequence of human events left the cubes without a monitor on the ground.” Moans followed from around the cavernous conference hall.

“There was also a federal government shutdown and a Global Pandemic.” Foley continued calmly, “Congress fighting over the budget. Other engineers at JPL found new jobs, at SpaceX or Blue Origin or private startups. This was when the professor started slipping away. Nobody left to mind the cubes, except the astronauts with their temperature readings.”

“This is exactly what everyone fears most,” Kearny alarming all, “AI left unattended, goes haywire, attacks the world. I can see the headlines. I still believe there are mysterious ground controllers! Wherever they are.”

“Our research shows the cubes frequently access servers at Cal Tech or Marshall in Huntsville. They forward space debris maps, Incident reports and video clips. A JPL researcher gave our Cube Team server space for shared data. I can’t believe the last NASA or school direct contact with the cubes was 8 months ago.” Rena Sakai incredulous.

“Yes, except for the Professor’s nephew.” Kearny replied, deliberately clearing his throat.

“We’re after him, Rena.” Dumas insisted “Has anyone gone through Cube data on Caltech’s server?”

“Just got access, Anna and I are reviewing it now. Could use more help.” Felicia appealed, “Jerry? Hari?”

“I’ll help. Dr. Murnau, what have you learned so far from the Caltech data?” Hari asked. Jerry nodded on the screen. Dragonflies still hanging all around him.

“Lots, Hari, but there are 1,000s of pages still to read.” Anna started. “I’ll send a copy of my initial findings to you and Jerry. So far, our hypothesis is on this chart.” She displayed her simple outline:

• Cubes updated.
• Software Update included advanced Cubesat specs.
• Cubes changed 3D printer designs to print Cubesat mods.
• Bot assemblers installed Cubesat mods

She added, “I know it sounds impossible, but our cubes have grown significantly more intelligent.”

“Send your findings to the entire Committee,” The General said with a rare smile, followed by a frown. “Include a quick summary of any important insights from that server. Everyone, keep in close touch. Meeting adjourned.” Kearny realizing the people in this room had important work ahead, remaining in this bomb shelter talking about it was unproductive.

• *******
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